Date:26/06/2003 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2003/06/26/stories/2003062608100600.htm

Southern States - Andhra Pradesh

Advani's assurance to Naidu

By Our Special Correspondent

HYDERABAD June 25. The Deputy Prime Minister, L. K. Advani, assured the A. P. Chief Minister, N. Chandrababu Naidu, that he would instruct the Ministry of Water Resources to act impartially in the inter-State river dispute between Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka.

Mr. Advani made this offer when Mr. Naidu spoke to him on Wednesday morning to express his Government's unhappiness over the manner in which the Central Water Commission (CWC) had been handling the dispute over the Paragodu and Upper Tunga projects.

Mr. Naidu told presspersons late tonight that the rescheduling of the agenda for Friday's meeting between Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka at New Delhi was unjustified. Karnataka was raising a fresh dispute over the Krishna waters even though it had failed in its attempts in the Supreme Court to stall projects in Andhra Pradesh.

On the other hand, it had `clearly violated' the award of the Krishna Water Disputes Tribunal (KWDT) by constructing the Upper Tunga project. Mr. Naidu said he had written to the CWC pointing out that Karnataka `had no case and that it was appropriating more than its share of the Tungabhadra waters'.

He reiterated that he had no objections in meeting the AICC president, Sonia Gandhi, over the row with Karnataka, since he was fighting for a just cause and protecting the interests of the four Rayalaseema districts and Mahabubnagar. Expressing surprise at a suggestion that Ms. Gandhi was ready to meet the all-party delegation, he quipped "did this statement come from her office or from the CLP leader, Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy''.

The Chief Minister said he also did not mind if the BJP president, M. Venkaiah Naidu, a Rajya Sabha member from Karnataka, played the role of mediator. The all-party delegation did not call on Mr. Venkaiah Naidu because it had submitted its representation to the Prime Minister, A.B. Vajpayee.